As preparations hit top gear ahead of an emergence of a new government in the state, waste contractors in Oyo state have again accused the consultant, Mottainai Recycling Limited of exploiting their businesses and running them aground at the detriment of the state economy.
This was as the waste contractors accused Mottainai of alleged multiple taxations, imposition of ‘unreasonable’ levies, fines, and taking what was termed counterproductive measures such as taking possession of local government waste compactors and trucks instead of providing the expected and required capacity.
Mr Henry Olayinka, one of the leaders of waste contractors in the state, through a press statement made available to journalists on Saturday, made the disclosure.
Mr Henry in a copy of the statement made available to Daily Independent on behalf of other operators in the state appealed to Governor Makinde for immediate action over the issue. He beg the governor to immediately stop the consultant from going ahead with what was described as ‘modern-day slavery’.
They noted that Mottainai’s counter allegation that he was working to restore sanity in the system and that the resistance against his exploitative and multiple taxation approach that has continued to wreak havoc on their businesses was corruption fighting back remain unfounded, baseless and fictitious stressing that the waste contractors remain committed and dedicated to ensuring a clean and safe environment but would not accept such barefaced exploitation and injustice from the consultant.
The operators accused the consultant of making frantic efforts to also take possession of their various organizations’ waste trucks under the guise of corporate branding with Mottainai Recycling Limited as well as issuing dockets in the name of the consultant to clients stressing that such a move was a disguised and manipulative attempt to take possession of private properties he did not own.
The waste contractors described the mindset and approach of the consultant to waste management in the state as solely based on economic exploitation saying various policies and directives by Mottainai Recycling Ltd to operators have rendered many of their businesses aground and also rendered them near bankruptcy as its impacts are already taking a serious toll on the sector.
The waste contractors accused Mottainai Recycling Limited of flagrantly conducting itself like a dictator with no regard for the rule of law or the state justice system by impounding operators’ waste trucks and issuing sanctions and penalties arbitrarily even when a judgement of the Waste Tribunal had clearly stipulated penalty.
Corroborating their position on arbitrarily impounding operators’ waste trucks and imposing sanctions at will, the contractors disclosed a few members who have been victims of Mottainai’s illegal impounding of waste trucks including Olusola Oluwatayo, Henry Kayode, Ademola Akinmolasere, Abiodun Owoeye, Emanuel aderibigbe and others.
They also accused the waste consultant of championing an ulterior agenda to deliberately run operators aground to ward off competition from any quarter in order to gain monopolistic power. These, they justified by disclosing the directive to all waste contractors to immediately brand their waste trucks in Mottainai’s brand name while vowing to resist the move by all legitimate means.
They explained that Mottainai has continued to trample on their rights and freedom as business owners by attempting to take over their waste trucks through the backdoor with such directives saying waste contractors are the ones liable to banks and other financial institutions where loan and other credit facilities were sought to drive their waste businesses and as such, they insisted the consultant has no right or power under any guise to issue such directive for the use of such trucks.
According to Olayinka, the excuse that the waste consultant had a contractual agreement with the government of Oyo state built on a franchise model under ‘zero waste, zero cost’ was done in bad faith with an ulterior intention to economically exploit the state warning that if Governor Makinde did not urgently take drastic measures to address the lingering issues in the sector, the state may soon be faced with a more serious crisis in waste management.
“He accused us of frustrating his efforts as his excuse, may I ask, Mottainai came from Lagos, in his route in Ikeja where he is a waste contractor like us in Ibadan, there is a lot of waste on the median where in which he is yet to clear, but he appeared in Oyo state as a waste consultant, where or which government has he consulted for before coming to Oyo state as a consultant?
“I’m sure we all can remember the immediate past administration before the present one, it was the issue of consultancy or not that culminated to waste littering everywhere and when this government came on board, Governor Makinde had to declare a three days state of emergency on waste in which waste vanished from all nooks and crannies of the state’s public domain but before long, wastes started returning to the median. Why? It was the advent of another consultant which was packaged to the Governor in another form.
“Kudos to the Governor because he had initially cancelled the issue of consultancy because he saw the danger inherent but unfortunately, this particular one was repackaged again under the guise of zero waste zero cost mantra. May I ask, has waste left the median? No, because the consultant is busy delisting waste contractors that should be busy on the field because of his ulterior motive to ground our businesses and secure monopolistic power to do and undo.
“If all waste contractors are firm in their routes and other relevant agencies do what is expected of them you will never see waste on the median because all wastes are expected to move from their sources to the dump sites where it is recycled. Mottainai came to Oyo as a recycling company and later changed its face to that of a consultant and now we’re already hearing he is now a PSP. His interest is to make money as much as he can from Oyo state to the detriment of us contractors who know every nook and corner of waste sources.
“Let me ask Mottainai if I may, where is Pepeye, can he tell me where is Ejioku, Olokofefe, Ilugun, and so many others like that? The answer is no, so, how then is he a consultant? But a contractor would go to every nook and cranny of the state because we know the sources and once we get the waste, it is straight to the dump site, not the median.
“Mottainai is a businessman that’s fine, he was able to convince the governor and got the job with no problem but he is supposed to consult for the government, not the contractors. Now lots of our waste trucks are already impounded for one claim or the other, if such contractors did not find their way back to their routes, do you think residents in such routes would find it easy to dispose of their waste, will such waste not return to the median? How about the threat of epidemic in the system? and would he not have made his money and if there’s any problem, he’d return back to his base in Lagos?
“This is nothing short of economic slavery because what Mottainai himself fought against in Lagos is what he sold to Oyo state as an agenda. So, in a nutshell, our prayer to our Governor is that the government should come out with their position on white paper stating clearly what they want and watch us deliver within the stipulated period of time.”
“We know the government wants a clean environment and wants us to put back into the system and that is what we have been doing all along the records are there, even during the coronation of the Olubadan of Ibadanland, what we are capable of doing was evident in the way we cleaned up everywhere,” Olayinka said.
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